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Thursday, October 24, 2013

Best Intentions

It is so difficult trying to share my experiences with a loved one who has decided to believe, on no great evidence, that they have the corner market on truth, inspired by the Holy Spirit and to disagree means that I am being influenced by the most evil Being of all the universe.

How plausible does this SOUND?

But this is what countless Christians believe. It sounds like science fiction, but people base their entire lives on it!

This is craziness people. Until adults wake up and start taking the responsibility to stop teaching the junk to our kids, OR at LEAST do the research needed to be able to teach your kid that there is an incredibly powerful beast that wants to destroy you, then we will keep acting like ignorant people from ancient times.

Let's think back to the Greeks, Romans, others. Humans have been very bright and capable for thousands of years. It's not like we don't see the real world. It's that our imaginations run wild and we follow. Yay!

I am just SO grateful that I have come to this conclusion (that there really is no god) while I live in America in this century. Thankfully it's not the middle ages or that I don't live in the middle east. Thankfully I wont be burned at the stake or stoned to death.

People.... Wake up! This is CRAZY!

Be good for goodness sake. Do good for goodness sake. Find morals and truths without jumping into some fantasy, that teaches stoning of people, ritual sacrifices, child mutilation, and bigotry.

I WISH I HAD NEVER GROWN UP THINKING THIS WAS REAL. It took me years of pain and suffering to overcome it and NOW almost everyone I know is still bound to the chains of superstition.

This post is a big rant because I love my niece very much. I tried to share some reason with her. She thinks I am satan's messenger and her mother doesn't want me in their life. This is the craziness that FAITH causes.

9 comments:

My wife is a devout Catholic and can't understand how I could be an atheist. I walked her through the Bible and asked her to stop me when God went from being a fictional character to a real person. I got her to believe that the creation story, Adam and Eve and the Flood were myths. I got all the way to Moses and the burning bush and then she said that God is real from that point on. I couldn't convince her that Moses was also a fictional character and that he did not part the Red Sea.

She's not going to give up on trying to bring me back to the faith. I do go to mass with her once a week. It's the least I can do. I love my wife and I am not sure she could handle the real truth.

Bill-you are a saint to got to mass with your wife each week. You're going to heaven for sure!

I found myself in a Mass within the past year. I found parts of it really beautiful and comfortable until the priest started to gush about Jesus. That was too much for me and I had to leave.

I can accept God in the sense of an unknown awesome incomprehensible force. But Jesus is a different story (with the emphasis on STORY).

For the past few months, I followed a blog for a rad trad RC (only Latin counts). I came to the conclusion after researching the Catechicsm of the Catholic Church that most RCs have little idea what they claim they believe. They are lucky if they are aware of the basics story let alone the dogma and theology. The Devil is in the Details and the fine print (CCC) reveals that most folks are going to burn forever in spite of their best intentions...and they can't count on loyalty to the Church to save them.

When you start to get into it, you find a labyrinth of rules and theories that make your head spin. It is sort of like the big interview the Pope had in America Magazine. It sounded good at first but then, over time, after everything got put into context all the good compassionate stuff had disappeared. This car was only driven by a grandma on Sundays to go to Church. Right. Forget it.

The ironic thing about God, is that for someone who Loves us so much (according to Christians), a lot of people in the Bible end up dead or afflicted through no fault of their own.

I assume your niece is at least a teenager. If not, then her mom is merely being responsible trying to shield her from influences that she (as a parent) believe could threaten her child.

If your niece is a teen, I can understand her mom's apprehension about being exposed to atheists. However, from an evangelistic perspective such isolation is counterproductive. Since Jesus came to heal the sick, Christians should be working to convert and save souls. It's hard to do that if one is disengaged. Of course, some folks will say they can pray for salvation and still keep their distance. Course, that is not what Jesus did, he got dirty and was born a human and actually lived with us sinners. Yecch.

Thanks Fred. Masses are torture for me. When Catholics say that people possessed by the devil hate all religious rites and symbols, I feel like saying "no, that's how people who know what a bunch of bs all that stuff is feel".

I'm thinking about telling my wife I just can't do it anymore. That would be hard though because she is hoping that by going I will be drawn back. To be honest, it only makes me hate it even more.

Bill-You cannot abandon your wife to Sunday Mass. You are one body with her. Be patient and strong and loving and gentle.

Keep discussing it with her. Encourage her to study the Bible (but stay away from the Jeff Cavin, Scott Hahn courses-those are brain washing). Reading the Bible is one of the most effective ways for people to start to question organized religion. Why do you think Catholicsm discouraged people for years from reading the Bible.

You might also encourage her to read the Catechism. Wow is there some minding numbing stuff in that! Ask her questions about it. Many people have no idea what they actually profess belief in.

It is hard to truly relate to my Catholic wife and it is hard for her to understand how sure I am about my worldview. It is easy to step back and look at what religion is all about and never want to have anything to do with it again. It isn't Satan at work trying to make us lose our faith. It is the light of reality and truth shining through the darkness that calls itself light and falsehoods that are presented as the Truth.

Bill, I totally understand! I have stopped going to Mass for a few reasons. The one that made me stop was just when logistics became overwhelming with 5 kids. But, What keeps me away is the fact that I think it is a big waste of time. My free time is so incredibly limited, that I will not spend it appeasing other peoples delusions. I disagree with Fred. I think the longer we go along with such irrationalities the longer other people hold out hope that they are right and we will return to the fold. I think what is better is if we make good use of our life and time and treat people the same regardless.